By Nate Van Wagnen |
In the mid-to-late 1990s , King of Columbus was a marquee event that attracted some of the baddest outlaw street cars in the Midwest to National Trail Raceway outside Columbus , Ohio . The race went away for several years after ownership changes before the current ownership and management , Jay Livingston and Jason Murray , brought it back with reasonable success in 2019 . After a COVIDinduced hiatus in 2020 , the event switched to a no-prep format in 2021 . The race went on hiatus again for the last two years , but Triple J Promotions brought it back for 2024 with a continued focus on no-prep racing . Triple J Promotions – made up of National Trail Dragstrip Manager Jeb Bolyard and brothers Camron and Austin Kardules – started planning the King of Columbus come back in early November last year .
“ When Jeb asked Camron and myself if we would help be a part of bringing back the King of Columbus , we couldn ’ t say yes quick enough ,” said Austin Kardules , the younger of the two brothers . “ This was an event we wouldn ’ t miss as kids growing up and always heard about how great it was back in its day , so we jumped at the opportunity to co-promote the event with Jeb .”
This year ’ s running of the King of Columbus was a one-day event held on Saturday , April 13 to kick off National Trail ’ s 60th anniversary season . Around 60 cars showed up to compete in several classes , while another 30 or so participated in the open grudge / test-n-tune portion of the event .
“ We had racers from Chicago , Canada , New York , and pretty much everywhere in between , a line of spectators out to the road for over an hour ,
|
and thousands of viewers on the live feed ,” Kardules said . “ For being our first event we have done as promoters , it far exceeded our expectations .”
The headlining class , Driveline1 Small Tire ( 28x10.5s ), paid $ 8,500 to win with 29 cars entered . Canada ’ s Wajdy Khalil – aka Wajdy WK – in his small-block Ford-powered ‘ 02 Mustang known as “ The Grinch ” got the win in the final round when local standout Tommy Hoskinson couldn ’ t make the call due to a mechanical issue suffered in the semifinals .
“ It was badass ,” Khalil said of the event on the Ohio Grudge Racing Podcast . “ That track was really tricky . It was so hard to read it . In the beginning it was slippery . We spun right on the hit first past . It recovered and got the win somehow . Second pass , took some power out and it went down . It was fast for the amount of power we took out . The car got out of shape on the top end [ in the semis ]. In the finals , I left the tune from the semis in it and the track didn ’ t take it . If we were going to race , we would ’ ve changed the tune-up and tamed it down a little bit .”
In the Small Tire Second Chance Race , Chris Taber in his silver Camaro picked up the win over CJ Buckner in “ Raggedy Ann .” Taber also earned the Long Haul Award for making the trip from eastern New York .
Graham ’ s Auto Resale True Street , which paid $ 2,600 to win , saw 21 cars enter the class . Another New York-based racer , Tyler Desantis , won in his blue Fox-body Mustang over Ohio ’ s Logan Bilbrey .
Hot Shot ’ s Secret Stick Shift may not have attracted as many cars as the promoters hoped for , but Pennsylvania ’ s Joe Fisher still collected $ 1000 check for his win in his white Toyota Supra over Andrew Hamlin .
|
Chris Layne in his purple Chevy S-10 picked up the $ 900 win in Houck Performance Fabrication Hard Tire over Ernie Brown .
The winners walked away with special no-prep edition NHRA Wally trophies , as well as Hot Shot ’ s Secret gift baskets . Sponsors like Clear One Trailer Accessories , Neal Chance Converters , and Lincoln Welders also contributed gift certificates and prizes , while random spectators were given gift baskets from Roosters , a local wing chain .
Triple J Promotions is already back to work on a fall edition of the King of Columbus , which will be a prepped event , set for September 7 . The lineup will include UMTR stick-shift racing , heads-up drag racing , a car show , truck , show , and audio show . DI
|
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SHAD MEDIA AND OHIO GRUDGE RACING |